News Comment/COMENTARI AL DIA

Calatrava’s Referendum/EL REFERÈNDUM DE CALATRAVA

Calatrava’s Referendum

by Josep C. Verges

Modest Calatrava tram stop in St. Gallen which Swiss voters protected cutting the public budget by half. Below: Extravagant Calatrava patisserie in Valencia where more than half the politicians are indicted for corruption.

The referendum is a fabulous tool for democratisation to control politicians. In Switzerland they ride in second hand official cars, not in luxury limos like in Spain. Voters strike down any excess expenditure. In St Gallen they turned down a 40 million remodelling of market square, including demolishing the tram stop of the Valencian from Zurich Santiago Calatrava. This September politicians present a new project at half the price which does not touch Calatrava’s metallic art. The Swiss are rich because they do not misuse public money. Valencians are poor because they spend much more than they can afford, even if they use the same genius Calatrava. The difference is the referendum, like in Scotland and Catalonia.

The celebrated English translator of Pla, Peter Bush, is leaving to live in Oxford. I say goodbye dining at Barcelona’s Sarria Square, facing the bar where Marshall Tito had his headquarters during the Civil War, today a wall in ruins. With us the astonishing musicologist Roger Evans, author of the English biography of Xavier Montsalvatge. We talk of Pla, obviously, but also of the referendum, unavoidably. Will there be a “decision”, as they say? I joke with New Yorker Roger Evans that Americans took their yes decision three centuries ago. His riposte: “In a referendum yes and no would have drawn!” Now it is Scotland’s turn, just after 9/11, Catalan national day. The English are celebrating before time, based on opinion polls, that the no vote will win. Spanish nationalists do not celebrate at all because they fear the opposite, that the yes vote will win in Catalonia. Which explains why David Cameron can play the democrat by agreeing on a vote while Mariano Rajoy bunkers down against democracy. Is it certain that the no vote will win in Scotland? The conservative Telegraph, which never has anything good to say about the Scots almost like a Madrid paper against Catalans, is no longer sure about the anti-independence opinion polls. Charlotte Runcie spells it out reviewing the Edinburgh plays: “Everywhere there is confidence that independence was just around the corner. Plenty of passion but little in the way of real debate. The Danish actress Sofia Grabol, of the cult TV series The Killing, as Queen Margaret of Scotland asked why the Scots were afraid of standing up to the English. There was a sense of trepidation mixed with determination. Its faith was contagious. Positivity was in the air. What the independence-themed events lacked in detailed political argument, they made up for in heart. Heart and soul? What’s that compared to the awesome fear of economic collapse? But on this evidence if the referendum comes down to a battle between head and heart, it looks like a fair fight.” The opinion polls state that the no is 9 points ahead of the yes. Is this true? I explain to the two Catalanophiles my personal experience of the municipal, cantonal and federal referendums every three moths in Switzerland. Opinion polls are never to be trusted in emotional subjects. They only get it right in pocketbook matters, for example the no on five weeks paid holidays. On the other hand in emotional questions, like foreigner bashing, the interviewees hide their vote and invariable the opinion polls favour the no and underestimate the yes vote. Independence is an emotional subject, however many scares on economic issues are put forward. For months I have predicted a yes vote. We shall see soon enough.